FINDING HARMONY PODCAST
What is a spiritual practice? How does it work? How will it improve my life? How will deepening my self-care transform me? What strategies can I use to improve my life, increase my health, and create wellness? How can craft a life that I love?
The Finding Harmony Podcast gets to the root of all these questions. Each episode is full of inspiration, humour, honest observations, and actionable steps that you can integrate to enhance your experience of self-love, develop a connection to Spirit, and create a life you truly love.
Show Notes Below:
Spiral Journey of Spirit
This is a solo episode where I'm reflecting on some important questions:
What is the spiritual path and how does it change us?
How best can you honour this spiritual quest of life?
What makes you come alive and feeds your soul?
These are a few thoughts and reflections on what it means to have a spiritual practice and discipline.
Inspired by reading from the book: "Ritual As Remedy" by Mara Branscombe, a guest from back in January, episode 148.
I speak to how my own practice has shifted and changed over the years.
If you have more questions or want more episodes like this please comment on this post!
Life and Death with Ty Landrum
It’s with great pleasure we sit down to speak with Ty Landrum to talk about his passion for Philosophy and the interplay of Eros and Thanatos. What creates the desire to thrive?
We examine the existential pointlessness of enduring our own suffering… And how to end it? A question that’s plagued humanity since the dawn of time, birthing the disciplines of Yoga and Buddhism.
Erik Jacobsen: Yoga, Philosophy, and Art
Erik became passionate about art making from a very early age. A place of refuge and contemplation, that encouraged him to turn over ideas in visual ways allowing for intuitive integration and learning. A mix of meditation and exploration, his work is infused with spiritual and philosophical inquiry. Asking deep questions has always been a primary driver in his life, and various contemplative traditions have been parallel and complementary to his artistic process.
Mara Branscombe: Ritual as Remedy
Mara Branscombe is a mother, writer, yogi, artist, teacher, mindfulness leader, ceremonialist and spiritual coach. She is the author of “Ritual As Remedy: Embodied Practices For Soul Care.”
An adventurous spirit, Mara has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, trekked across the Himalayas, studied yoga in India, planted trees in Canada’s north, lived off the grid in a remote cabin in the woods, worked as a Waldorf (Steiner School) teacher, and then found her passion for dance and choreography.
This is a beautiful conversation and an interview you don’t want to miss!
Katie Silcox: Southern Shakti to Keep You Healthy, Happy & Sexy
Katie told us that ours was the “single most fun podcast she’d ever been on. Bar none!” High praise to be sure. We were SO delighted!
Getting to know Katie Silcox is like unwrapping a beautiful gift that keeps revealing more lovely surprises hidden inside the layers and folds:
The Southern Belle as Mystic who shares openly about her journey and struggles, what brought her to seek out the wisdom traditions of the East and ultimately what’s inspired her to explore the philosophical teachings of the West…
Christmas with Kino Yoga
Enjoy this relaxed, informal, conversation between old friends chatting about old times, as if we were catching up at the local Coconut Stand in Gokulum after a challenging led class.
The real charm of Kino though, besides her effortless ability to be vulnerable, as well as her deep and critical intelligence (which might be a somewhat delightful and unexpected surprise for the average IG doomscroller) is her down to earth, straight-up honesty.
Kia Miller: Radiant Body, Integrated Life
Kia Miller is someone who lives a radiant and integrated life! She brings the inside to the outside world and in her meditations she brings the outside into her room. Sometimes that’s as simple as opening a window, even on the coldest of winter mornings… Beginning her journey with a deep dive into the Ashtanga method, Kia started to explore other forms of asana practice, Iyengar, Vinyasa, and finally immersed herself fully into the Kundalini Yoga lineage.
Compassion In Action with Elena Brower
Mama, Humanitarian, Artist, Poet, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur, Teacher, and Mentor… Elena Brower has woven a beautiful tapestry of conscious awareness. She weaves together many diverse roles and interests, all of which bring her joy, to create a life that exemplifies compassion in action.
Kintsugi with Mae Yoshikawa
We dive into a discussion of what feminine spirituality looks like. Just as her inspiration, the late guru Sri Anandamayi Ma, our guest today, Mae Yoshikawa, also embodies this eternal nature of divine joy. Late in today’s episode, Mae speaks about her status as a widow and what that means for her as well (be sure to listen all the way… so not to miss both the beautiful and tragic events that broke her heart wide open).
The Long Way Home with Vikram Jeet Singh
Armed with Pasasana as a superpower our guest today, Vikram Jeet Singh joins us to talk about the evolution of the asana practice and our attachment to the physicality of it and how we can begin to embrace a wider scope of practice.
You’ll find we touch upon interesting and somewhat difficult topics of racism, cultural appropriation, fascism, the relationship between yoga in the West vs East, and how our mind, higher intellect, and ego interface to make sense of our experiences in life.
A Golden Journey with Diana Christinson
Diana Christinson takes us on quite a journey. It reminds us of Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me To The End of Love, a sacred vision of love and life that reflects our Hero’s quest to find meaning in both. Diana has a wonderful quality of goodness about her, steadiness in the midst of turmoil. We talk about death of loved ones and the space loss leaves; yet, Diana maintains a balance of mind and spirit of loveliness. She is an inspiration and a testament that yoga actually does work.
Magic and the Mysore Yoga Tradition with Andrew Eppler
Merry Christmas! For this year-end special we have a little present for you all. Some Magic!
Andrew Eppler began practicing yoga with his father, Ray Eppler, at age 14. Cliff Barber was their first teacher. Andrew has continued practising and teaching Ashtanga yoga all over the world for the past 35 years. Andrew has given us all an incredible gift. He has made and produced the documentary film: The Mysore Yoga Traditions. This film is a deep dive into the myriad practices and teachers, who are alive, available, and relevant in Mysore today. Andrew also studied magic and enjoys diving into anything that seems to be impossible. He is well known as The Yogi Magician.
Coming Full Circle with Nea Ferrier
Accessing the deepest, most personal parts of herself, and bringing them into the light is at the heart of Nea’s practice. Like Bhuvaneshwari, the great cosmic mother of the universe, who represents space and who creates space for all things. Nea herself, has become a cosmic womb. She creates space within her own consciousness for beautiful experiences to grow and flourish, and is focused on giving birth to her very own divine nature.
That's How I Got To Moscow... with Anna Guryeva
It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to our friend Anna Guryeva. She graces us a with a marvelous little window into the Russian soul. From the heart of Siberia, she reveals a path to joy.
To see the beauty of the Russian spirit, one must understand the generational hardship of the people, and Anna’s narrative, though particular to her, shares this ancestral trauma. To know the horror of the last century, and the centuries of slavery that came before, and Anna’s own enslavement, is to see the miracle of Anna’s ecstasy.
Geoff Mackenzie: Man of the World
It is such a joy to meet a human being dedicated to evolution, self discovery, and insight. It’s our pleasure to introduce to you the accentless Englishman, now profoundly Canadian, Geoff Mackenzie!
Citizen of the world, swimmer, rugby player, and avid skier… Mysore teacher and Yogic Health Coach. He tells us how his practice has evolved over these past few year, becoming less strict. He’s created a more adaptive approach, more personal, and not dependent on needing to “show your practice off” in Mysore, India. You’ll hear us talk about how to maintain your practice as you age.
Living Yoga with Richard and Mary
Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor need no introduction.
In this episode, we talk about the dissolution of our minds, bodies, and practices in the face of time. How do we let go of the physicality of the practice?
What we heard was extremely enlightening, and surprisingly heart-opening.
We also touch upon Lojong Buddhist practice, and the difference between “taking refuge” and “surrendering.” What the Bhagavad Gita and the Wizard of Oz have in common, and how they’ve kept love alive within their relationship after all these years… and how you can too!
Lee Seung-Eun: Lost in Translation
You know her as Lee. We know her as 이성은. It is with great honor and joy that we introduce you to our very special friend, Lee (this is her last name of course). We discussed at length the impact a Confucian society has on our individual decisions like how to treat your elders in school or society, how to pay respect to the individual, how to be respectful to your life goals and education, or whether Russell is heart centered or a comedian… This is out first episode making use of a translator.
But, it will not be our last.
It was a deeply personal and intriguing window into another culture. Yet, here we all are, passionately invested over a long period of time, practicing daily Patanjali’s yoga of transformation.
Alex Medin: Relax into Life
It is our great pleasure to introduce you to our old friend (and living legend) Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, Alex Medin. Unfortunately this sentence doesn’t do him justice! He’s an excellent and exceptional student in so many walks of life: a boxer, ballet dancer, a Sanskrit scholar, entrepreneur, and humanitarian to name but a few. Not only will you hear his story, but his entire interview is threaded with yoga philosophy and ancient wisdom for the modern human condition.
Maria Boox Love Goddess
In Norse mythology, Freyja (from Old Norse meaning "the Lady" is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, and gold. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers.
Today we interviewed Maria Boox, who in our opinion, most embodies this Freya love goddess energy.
Sonja and The Mind Monsters
It’s been said that if you can’t explain something to a 5 year old, you don’t really understand it. Perhaps apocryphally that quote refers to quantum mechanics and general relativity theory. Albert Einstein was doing his level best to explain these concepts to a nervous public. Equally as difficult to understand is the prism of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and yet our guest today, Sonja Radvila, explains it effortlessly in her Yoga Sutra book written especially for children.